Multipass differential synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (DInSAR), with its capability to accurately monitor ground displacements, has dramatically pushed the applications of imaging radars in many fields, particularly in the area of environmental risk monitoring and security. Advanced DInSAR techniques operating at reduced resolution allow monitoring very wide areas whereas persistent scatterers interferometry (PSI) and more recently SAR tomography for very high resolution sensors, have shown to be powerful methods for providing 3-D point clouds representing buildings and infrastructures as well as in the monitoring of their possible slow temporal deformations. In this chapter, a detailed description of these techniques is provided, starting on the basic principles of the SAR interferometry and highlighting the relationship between interferometric and tomographic approaches.

Chapter Contents:

Abstract

8.1 Introduction

8.2 SAR interferometry

8.2.1 Basic concepts

8.2.2 Decorrelation of radar echoes

8.2.3 Differential interferometry

8.3 Multi-pass differential interferometry

8.3.1 Coherent stacking interferometry

8.3.2 Persistent scatterers interferometry

8.3.3 The two-step A-DInSAR approach

8.4 SAR tomography

8.5 Multi-dimensional tomography imaging methods

8.5.1 Beamforming

8.5.2 Singular value decomposition

8.5.3 Capon filter

8.5.4 Compressed sensing

8.5.5 Detection of concentrated scatterers

8.5.6 Further aspects on multi-look processing of interferometric SAR data